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Friday, March 30, 2012

Movies: Snow White and the Huntsman's Dwarves' "Latent Sexuality"

(From Bill Willingham's Fables)

In a recent interview at Wondercon from Movieline Rupert Sanders made an interesting remark about the dwarves in his movie:

“The dwarves really, you know, dwarves mythologically are latent sexuality, you know, they’re half-men. So, they’re kind of, they’re about sexual awakening,” Sanders said. [Sanders explains there will be no dwarf gang bangs in his movie]. “It’s really about another group of people who have lost everything because of the [Queen's] reign, and they are touched by Snow White and they decide that they will fight for their pride again alongside her.” (Full Article)

I had never heard this before, but it makes sense. I can understand in the context of the movie how they represent impotence (in terms of power, not sexuality) and how the coming of Snow White gives them the ability to take control of their lives again. I am a bit relieved he is not playing up the sexual angle. These dwarves come off as kindly uncles (though personally in his heyday, I think Bob Hoskins was rather sexy).

Fables, the comic by Bill Willingham, certainly goes in the sexual direction. Snow White is enslaved by the seven dwarves (sons of the dwarf in Snow White and Rose Red) and is abused both physically and sexually. It is also a common theme in erotica and comedy - how could Snow White live with seven men for so long and not sleep with them? <eyeroll>.

Dwarves have been portrayed as both benevolent and malevolent from Norse myth to fairy tales to Tolkien and beyond. Often they are portrayed as characters with the desire to do something, but do they do not have the power to do it. Does anyone have accounts of sexual dwarves? It is ringing a bell for me, but I can't find it.

[EDIT: Just to clarify, I am talking about the mythological dwarf, not those diagnosed with dwarfism. Though I believe that people with dwarfism may have given rise to the myths, in this article, I am only referring to dwarves as the mythological species as represented in literature.]